What’s up at General Electric? First, in May 2005, CEO Jeff Immelt announced a new corporate initiative dubbed Ecomagination. Under the plan, the company will invest $1.5 billion annually by 2010 – roughly half of its current research budget –
in clean-tech R&D. He also pledged to roll back GE’s own greenhouse gas emissions 1 percent by 2012. (They had been on track to rise 40 percent.) Then the $360 billion Fairfield, Connecticut, conglomerate started airing feel-good TV ads starring a tap-dancing elephant. And this spring, a GE executive testifying at a US Senate hearing asked the government to impose mandatory emission limits on American companies.

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Not the kind of talk you’d expect from a corporate giant best known among environmentalists for dumping toxic PCBs into the Hudson River for almost three decades. But as evidence mounts that carbon emissions cause global warming, outfits like General Electric – along with fellow Wired 40 companies Exelon, BP, and Toyota – are realizing that going green is good for business.

American corporations have traditionally regarded environmental controls as an expensive nuisance – not as an inspiration for their business plans. And by his own admission, Immelt is no tree hugger. But the focus on carbon reduction makes strategic sense for GE. Obviously, investing in clean technologies pays dividends in public relations and marketing buzz: FedEx has announced plans to cut emissions through the use of hybrid delivery trucks, a move that plays well with consumers.

And much like Toyota (hybrid vehicle technology) and BP
(alt-energy program), GE believes there may be a vast market for other environmentally smart products. GE’s initiatives include plans to develop roof tiles that function as solar cells and water purification systems to reduce municipal waste outflows.

The global market is especially hungry for green technology. Most US multinationals do business in Europe and Asia – regions that have accepted, and are beginning to enforce, the limits on greenhouse gases imposed by the Kyoto Protocol. Even if the
US never ratifies the relatively stringent treaty, US products will soon be competing abroad in markets that are on a low-carbon diet. GE is already developing wind turbines, low-emission air­­craft engines, and hybrid locomotives for overseas customers.

These companies also want to get a jump on any restrictions they may eventually face in the US. “There will be a carbon-constrained future. It’s prudent to take action now, because it will benefit us when regulation comes,” says Helen Howes, vice president of environment, health, and safety at Chicago-based power company Exelon. The firm has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions – already relatively low – 8 percent
by 2008 (using a 2001 baseline).

But top-down legislation may prove unnecessary if green-leaning companies continue to do well on Wall Street and with customers. Whatever happens in the marketplace, the people in the lab are fired up. Mike Bowman, who runs the Energy Systems Laboratory at GE Global Research in Niskayuna, New York, says his group, which is working on “clean coal” power plant technologies, is growing so quickly he can’t hire scientists fast enough. “It’s a great technical opportunity, and it’s also the right thing to do,” he says. “We love this.”